Sex Addiction Overview

Sex addiction – is it real or merely a pop-culture diagnosis? The experts can’t yet agree on what to call it but they can agree that a whole lot of people suffer from a loss of control over their sexual behaviors and that this loss of control can cause some pretty significant real world problems. Learn more about sexual compulsions – the warning signs of a problem, the likely consequences of this ‘addiction’ and the treatments that work to help people take back control.

Some experts say it’s not real – others say that not only is
sexual addiction real, but that as many as 15 million Americans may suffer from
the disorder.

It’s a debate that’s come into the mainstream, thanks in
part to the very public indiscretions of people like Tiger Woods and David
Duchovny; and most experts will agree that whatever you want to label it, some
people do have difficulty controlling their sexual impulses and this sexual
compulsivity can lead to a great deal of personal and familial pain.

Are
you preoccupied with sex?

Do
you keep sexual secrets?

Do
you engage in serial sexual acts without intimacy?

Do
your sexual acts cause you or those close to you harm?

Can
you control your sexual impulses?

If you lack control over your sexual acts and your behaviors
cause you personal pain you can get treatment. With treatment and effort, you
can learn control instead of compulsion and intimacy and trust instead of
secrecy and lies. Treatment works and it can help you retake control over your
life!

Is Sex Addiction a Real Disorder?

Problematic or compulsive sexual behaviors are, for some
people, very real and these behaviors can lead to great social, relationship
and even legal problems, but whether or not these behaviors are best classified
as a form of addiction remains under considerable debate.

The American Psychological Association (APA) does not yet
classify sex addiction as a disorder, but it is proposing the addition of the
term, hypersexuality, for inclusion into the 2013 manual of disorders, the
DSM-V.1

Psychologists working on the identification of new disorders
say that although they know that some people do seem to lack control over the
sexual behaviors, it’s not yet clear whether such people suffer from some form
of compulsive or impulse control disorder, an addiction of sorts, or from
behaviors that stem from another mental disorder entirely.

Although there is yet consensus on the origins and as such,
naming of problematic sexual behaviors, few experts deny that some people do
suffer from difficulties controlling their sexual behaviors, and that this
inability to control sexual behaviors can (and often does) lead to significant
harms.

Because sex addiction is the most widely used term to
describe this problematic sexual behavior, prior to clarification from the APA
we will use this term as an umbrella term to describe uncontrolled and
compulsive sexual behaviors.